| Date | Title | Description |
| 21.03.2024 | Leonsis-backed food and beverage AI startup nets $2.3M funding round | - |
| 19.01.2023 | Letter from 2023: a vintage year to invest in foodtech and agtech | 2023 could be the best year yet to invest in foodtech and agtech.
Sure, we’ve all said this before; that’s part and parcel of being in an industry since the beginning. And with all the amazing innovations we’ve seen over the last 10 years, ... |
| 17.01.2022 | How surplus food marketplace Full Harvest will spend its $23m Series B funding | For years, general consensus agreed the bulk of food waste in developed countries happened at the consumer-facing end of the value chain: in restaurants, retail outlets, and inside people’s homes. More recent data suggests otherwise. Accord... |
| 11.11.2021 | Nuritas raises $45m to scale its plant-based peptides discovery platform | Irish biotech company Nuritas has closed a $45 million Series B round led by Chicago-based Cleveland Avenue. The funding will be used to scale up Nuritas’ discovery platform for plant-based peptides that could be used to create healthier fo... |
| 17.09.2021 | Debut Biotech is creating next-gen ingredients through ‘cell-free biomanufacturing’ | With climate change and its environmental consequences upon us, many companies are turning to more ‘natural’ alternatives to the chemical-based ingredients commonly used in food, beverages, cosmetics, and therapeutics.
One such company is S... |
| 12.08.2021 | Debut Biotech Raises $22.6M Series A to Commercialize High-Value Ingredients from Proprietary Cell-Free Biomanufacturing Platform | By overcoming the limitations of cell-based fermentation, Debut Biotech produces high-value ingredients rapidly and more sustainably.
SAN DIEGO (PRWEB) August 12, 2021
Debut Biotech, a next generation biomanufacturing platform harnessing ce... |
| 07.06.2021 | Ginkgo Bioworks partners Asian chemicals giant Sumitomo | US synthetic biology startup Ginkgo Bioworks has signed an R&D collaboration agreement with Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical, one of the world’s largest producers of agrochemicals.
In a statement announcing their partnership, the pair said tha... |
| 11.12.2020 | Syngenta partners with Sound Ag to launch ‘bio-inspired’ crop input in China | Swiss agro-chemical giant Syngenta is hoping to tackle nitrogen use in China while maintaining productivity through a new partnership with one of its portfolio companies: Emeryville, California-based molecular biology startup Sound Agricult... |
| 10.12.2020 | 51 VCs Who Want To Invest In Women, Black And Latinx, And LGBTQ+ Founders | Erica Chidi, co-founder and chief executive officer of Loom, speaks during the 2020 Makers ... [+] Conference in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020. The event gathers industry leading females for roundtable discussio... |
| 22.09.2020 | Leaf raises $2m seed round to expand API offering for agrifoodtech startups | Tech permeates pretty much everything we do today, though most of us only experience the user-facing side of it. And while every app or program is hoping to tackle some major pain point or another, there are countless digital nuts and bolts... |
| 18.06.2020 | Three AgFunder portfolio companies selected as World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers | We’re proud to announce that The World Economic Forum has named three AgFunder portfolio companies to its annual Technology Pioneers of 2020 list: Brightseed, Trace Genomics, and Phylagen. This list identifies 100 companies transforming the... |
| 02.04.2020 | Agri-foodtech VCs assess Covid-19’s impact on the sector and portfolios | As we all “shelter in place” and “socially distance” ourselves, we are learning a lot about what we can live without. And what we can’t.
Agri-foodtech investors seem to be collectively counting their blessings in that respect.
“We probably ... |
| 26.03.2020 | Raising capital in a pandemic: ‘There is plenty of dry powder looking to get to work in this market’ | “These are choppy waters and everything is a little uncertain, but we think that food and agriculture is a resilient and stable sector and we’ll continue to make investments in the space,” said Amanda Donohue-Hansen, VP at Cultivian Sandbo... |
| 04.03.2020 | How Culture Biosciences is helping biomanufacture agrifood, pharma products from microbes at scale | You may have heard a growing number of agri-foodtech startups talk about how they’re “harnessing nature” to create new products and technologies. It could be they’ve discovered a soil microbe that can help crops grow under tough conditions ... |
| 02.01.2020 | 2020 predictions from agrifoodtech’s leading VCs | Happy New Year!
What a decade it’s been for the advancement of the food and agriculture industries! It was a decade spent catching up with other industries in the technological revolution. In many respects the industry is still in catch-up ... |
| 05.12.2019 | FarmlandFinder raises $3m seed round led by Cultivian to make farmland sales fairer | Des Moines-based startup FarmlandFinder has raised a $3 million seed round led by Chicago-based agtech VC Cultivian Sandbox with participation from Iowa Farm Bureau’s Rural Vitality Fund and Next Level Ventures. It previously raised an ange... |
| 23.05.2019 | Who Are the Most Active AgriFood Tech Investors? | While still a niche corner of the overall venture capital industry, investment in AgriFood Tech startups has grown exponentially since 2012, reaching $17 billion in 2018, according to our research.
AgriFood Tech encompasses all foodtech and... |
| 24.04.2019 | Cultivian Sandbox Ventures Closes Third Venture Capital Fund, at $135M | Chicago, IL-based AgriFood tech venture capital firm Cultivian Sandbox Ventures closed its third fund, at $135m.
Cultivian Sandbox Food & Agriculture Fund III’s investors include Archer Daniels Midland Company, Corteva Agriscience, Ecol... |
| 23.04.2019 | Cultivian Sandbox Closes 3rd Fund on $135m with Bevy of Food & Ag Corporate LPs | Cultivian Sandbox Ventures, the most established agrifood tech venture capital firm, has raised $135 million in its third fund. Founded in 2008, the firm was the first to focus entirely on technology startups operating across the food and a... |
| 23.04.2019 | Cultivian Sandbox closes third fund on $135m with bevy of food & ag corporate LPs | Cultivian Sandbox Ventures has raised $135 million in its third fund. Founded in 2008, the firm was the first to focus entirely on technology startups operating across the food and agriculture value chain.
Investors in the fund include comm... |
| 21.04.2019 | How Chicago Fuels Food-Focused Innovation | Today, Chicago’s newest food business accelerator, The Hatchery, will celebrate its grand opening. A non-profit incubator supported by companies like Conagra and Kellogg’s, The Hatchery will support entrepreneurs in growing successful food-... |
| 26.03.2019 | Animal AgTech, The Sector’s Awkward Uncle, Proudly Struts Its Stuff In San Fran | This year’s Rethink AgriFood Innovation Week in San Francisco saw an awkward uncle stride proudly into the week’s agenda for the first time with last Monday’s inaugural Animal AgTech Innovation Summit.
Animal agritech often struggles to evi... |
| 14.02.2019 | Thiel-Backed Breakout Ventures Invests in Phylagen $14m Series A with Cultivian, AgFunder For Microbe-Based Traceability | Microbiome data analytics company Phylagen has raised a $14 million Series A round led by Peter Thiel-backed Breakout Ventures, agrifood tech venture pioneer Cultivian Sandbox, supply chain innovation fund Working Capital with participation... |
| 13.02.2019 | 60 AgriFood Tech Startups Nominated for 2019 AgFunder Innovation Awards – Vote Now! | *VOTING EXTENDED UNTIL MARCH 1, 9AM ET!*
We’re very excited to open our Third Annual AgFunder AgriFood Tech Innovation Awards, where we recognize the innovators and entrepreneurs driving the agrifood tech sector forward.
Our nomination comm... |
| 15.08.2018 | Full Harvest Raises $8.5m Series A for Food Waste Marketplace | Full Harvest, a B2B marketplace focused on reducing food waste, has raised $8.5 million in Series A funding led by Spark Capital, the Silicon Valley VC, with participation from agtech venture capital firm Cultivian Sandbox Ventures.
Full Ha... |
| 18.04.2018 | HarvestPort Moves Into Crop Inputs As E-Commerce for Farmers Broadens and Varies | HarvestPort, a San Francisco-based agtech startup, launched a new way for growers to get unique deals on crop inputs online today.
HarvestPort was founded in 2015 as a marketplace connecting individuals and businesses seeking to sell, rent,... |
| 02.04.2018 | What is the Prototypical Agtech Exit? | The headline-making agtech exits of 2017 generated cautious optimism among investors and stakeholders, but as industry thinking moves along, a new conversation is emerging around what the acquisitions of Blue River Technology by John Deere,... |
| 20.02.2018 | Nine Dairy Farm Tech Startups Seeking to Bolster a Troubled Industry | Whether it be single-cow farms in India or massive commercial dairies in the US, the dairy industry is under pressure in light of changing market forces and consumer preferences.
In 2014, India’s dairy industry grew to be larger than that o... |
| 20.12.2017 | Nuritas Raises $20m Series A for AI Ingredient Discovery Platform | Nuritas, an Irish biotech startup has raised a $20 million Series A round led by agtech VC Cultivian Sandbox.
Nuritas has developed a database of molecules — namely peptides — found in food that have health benefits and sells ingredients co... |
| 05.12.2017 | Asilomar Bio Raises $12m Series B for Chemical Yield Enhancer | Asilomar Bio, a San Francisco-based maker of chemical crop inputs has raised a $12.25 million Series B Round to bring it’s first chemical yield enhancement product to market.
This announcement comes on the heels of a licensing agreement wit... |
| 21.11.2017 | Women in Agtech: Joy Parr Drach of Advanced Animal Diagnostics is Done with Double Standards | Joy Parr Drach is CEO of Advanced Animal Diagnostics (AAD), a company developing tools to diagnose livestock disease on the farm. The Research Triangle Park, North Carolina-based company aims to help cut back on the number of antibiotics ad... |
| 01.11.2017 | Ceres Imaging Raises Additional $2.5m to Support Crop Expansion After Climate Corp Partnership | Ceres Imaging has raised an additional $2.5 million in Series A funding from existing investor Romulus Capital. The Oakland-based company announced a first close of this round on $5 million in May.
This second close brings Ceres total fundr... |
| 10.10.2017 | Cultured Meat Will Cost Startups $150m-$370m (and Take At Least 4 More Years) to Bring to Market | There is a reason that high profile investors and entrepreneurs — and therefore media outlets globally — are getting increasingly excited about alternative protein-based food sources.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates tha... |
| 24.08.2017 | Cargill Invests in Predictive Ag ‘Data Refinery’ Descartes Labs’ $30m Series B | **UPDATE: Added comments from Cultivian Sandbox Managing Partner Andy Ziolkowski**
Big data analysis platform Descartes Labs has raised an oversubscribed $30 million Series B round led by new investor March Capital, a Californian venture ca... |
| 27.06.2017 | Is Food Tech Headed for a Cleantech Correction? | A cautionary tale is quietly making its way around food tech investor communities and conferences. The tale is the story of cleantech.
In the early aughts, just after the debut of the Prius in 1997, dot-com investors turned their lonely eye... |
| 09.03.2017 | HarvestPort Closes $2.5m Series A with Cultivian and Taylor Farms | HarvestPort, the online farm equipment and services marketplace, has raised $2.5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Chicago-headquartered agtech venture capital firm Cultivian Sandbox Ventures. Existing investor Taylor Farms,... |
| 13.02.2017 | How Purdue Foundry is Supporting Agtech Innovation | Universities in the US are integrating agriculture technology and innovation with the traditional STEM disciplines—science, technology, engineering, and math. And, while many of these universities are pushing agtech in the classroom, Purdue... |
| 16.12.2016 | What Happened in Ag and Foodtech in 2016? Experts Reflect | Feeling reflective as we approach the holiday season and the end of 2016? In this week’s podcast, we talk to two food and agtech experts about the innovation and investment trends they’ve noticed in ag and foodtech in 2016.
Andy Ziolkowski ... |
| 05.12.2016 | Tyson Foods launches new venture fund to back food and agriculture startups | Tyson Foods Inc., one of the world’s largest makers and marketers of meat products, has announced the formation of a $150 million venture capital fund to back food and agriculture startups.
According to Tyson’s Executive Vice President of S... |
| 06.10.2016 | A Guide to the Investors Funding the Next Agricultural Revolution | As the next agricultural revolution unfolds, an increasing number of investors are stepping up to fund it. As recently as six years ago, only three investment funds were dedicated to investing in agriculture technology innovation. Today, th... |
| 05.10.2016 | Connecting the Dots: Trends in Crop Protection and Animal Health | Editor’s Note: Kevin Zussman is an agtech investor with Cultivian Sandbox, a venture capital firm that invests in food & agriculture technology startups. Cultivian Sandbox is a joint venture between Cultivian Ventures and Sandbox Ventur... |
| 25.08.2016 | Agtech Funding Sheet: FarmShots Raises Seed Round – exclusive | FarmShots Raises Seed Round
After just completing the Y Combinator accelerator program, North Carolina-based satellite imagery startup FarmShots has closed a seed round after attracting local angel investors. Founder Josh Miller said that k... |
| 24.08.2016 | How Sustainable Is Agritech Investment? | Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on Forbes.com, entitled How Sustainable Is The Agritech Venture Ecosystem?
There’s no doubt that agriculture technology, as a sector of innovation, is having a moment. Agritech investment has surge... |
| 18.08.2016 | What do Monsanto’s Plans to Open Up its Digital Platform Mean for the Agriculture Industry? | Monsanto has made the first move towards building a centralized and open digital platform for farmers to access agronomic data and analysis from a range of providers through its subsidiary The Climate Corporation.
Much like how Apple opened... |
| 11.08.2016 | Fundings-in-Brief: Startup Manufacturing Wine without Grapes Raises $2.7m, Ashton Kutcher Invests in Farm-2-Consumer Startup, Vestaron Raises $18m, lots more | Alternative Wine Startup Ava Winery Raises $2.7m Seed Round with Horizon Ventures
Ava Winery, a startup engineering wine without grapes or fermentation, has raised $2.7 million in seed funding in a round led by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-s... |
| 12.04.2016 | How Technologies Developed for Other Sectors are Revolutionizing Food Production | Editor’s Note: Kevin Zussman is an agtech investor with Cultivian Sandbox, a venture capital firm that invests in food & agriculture technology startups. Cultivian Sandbox is a joint venture between Cultivian Ventures and Sandbox Ventur... |
| 19.11.2015 | Descartes Labs Raises $5m Series A for A.I. Analysis of Ag Imagery Data | Descartes Labs, a software startup using artificial intelligence to process satellite imagery, has raised $5 million in Series A funding in a round led by Cultivian Sandbox, the veteran agtech venture capital fund.
Through a form of artific... |
| 20.08.2015 | Agtech Veteran Cultivian Sandbox Leads Agrivida’s $23M Series D | Animal nutrition biotech company Agrivida has raised $23 million in Series D funding from a range of heavyweight venture capital firms. The round, which first closed in January on $12 million, has now completed ahead of its $20 million targ... |
| 17.06.2015 | Crop Protection Product Developer Asilomar Bio Announces $3M Series A Round | “Farmers everywhere will tell you that weather and water are the biggest issues,” Travis Bayer, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Asilomar Bio. The company recently closed a $3 million Series A round co-lead by Cultivian Sandbox Ve... |
| 08.09.2014 | Conservis Closes $10M Series A Financing | Conservis Corporation, a Minneapolis-based provider of cloud-based farm management software solutions, closed a $10m Series A financing.
The round was led by Cultivian Sandbox Ventures, with participation from existing investors Middleland ... |
| 26.08.2014 | Bioinsecticide Company, Vestaron, Raises $10M Series C from Cultivian | As it turns out, some VC’s don’t like bugs, either.
Kalamazoo-based bioinsecticide company, Vestaron Corporation, recently closed a $10M Series C Preferred Stock. The round was led by new investor Cultivian Sandbox Ventures, which is a fund... |
| 08.05.2014 | AbCelex Raises $2M Series A from Cultivian Sandbox Ventures | The CDC says that in the US, about 1 in 6 people getting sick from food-borne illnesses, causing 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths each year. But, the solution isn’t so easy. Scientists know that with the increased use of antibiotic... |
| 28.04.2014 | AbCelex Technologies Closes on $2.0M in Series A VC Financing | AbCelex Technologies Inc., a Canadian biotechnology company, closed on $2.0m in Series A venture capital financing.
The round was led by Cultivian Sandbox Ventures, LP. Ron Meeusen, a Managing Director of Cultivian Sandbox and co-founder an... |
| 13.03.2014 | EnEvolv Completes $1.7M Series A Financing | EnEvolv, Inc., a Boston, MA-based genome engineering company, completed its $1.7m Series A financing.
The round was led by Cultivian Sandbox Venture Partners, LP, a Chicago-based venture capital firm.
The company will utilize these new fund... |
